China’s National Energy Administration Visited Denmark to Learn about Thermal Power Plant Flexibility

9 March 2016

Denmark’s thermal power plant sector is one of the most flexible in the world. This is crucial when integrating very high shares of dynamic renewable energy sources like wind power. Last year 42% of Danish power consumption was produced by wind power and the flexibility of the thermal power plants was a significant factor in the successful integration of wind power in the energy system.

China is the world largest energy consumer and largest emitter of CO2 emissions as well as the world largest market for renewable energy. The recent and expected future rapid increase of renewable energy in China poses large integration challenges and led to a loss of 15 % of all wind production in China last year. This is why Danish knowledge and expertise with thermal power plant flexibility is of significant interest to China’s National Energy Administration.

On 25th-27th January the Danish Minister of the Energy, Utilities and Climate ministry, Lars Christian Lilleholt, was in China to follow up on the global climate agreement from COP21 in Paris. During his visit he signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Thermal Power Flexibility partnership together with Deputy Administrator Mr. Zheng Shanjie from China’s National Energy Administration. The Memorandum of Understanding focuses on how increased thermal power plant flexibility can assist China in integrating increasing shares of renewable energy by reducing production on their thermal power plants.

Now Mr. Zheng Shanjie, along with a large delegation, has visited Denmark to do a prompt follow up on the signed Memorandum of Understanding.

Among the delegation were prominent guests from NEA, Chinese research institutes, hardware manufactures and thermal power producers. The delegation learned more about thermal power production flexibility as well as fuel flexibility. The widespread use of heat storage tanks in Denmark as a mean to decouple power and heat production on combined heat and power plants (CHP) is of high interest just as use of biomass as a supplementary fuel is. The delegation was also introduced to Denmark’s use of energy policies to steer the future development of the energy market.

General Director of the Danish Energy Agency, Morten Bæk, welcomed Mr. Zheng Shanjie and the delegation and initiated the two very intense days of the study tour. On the first day several meetings were held at the DEA offices, where special guests from the Danish TSO, Energinet.dk, as well as the Danish Energy Association gave presentations on the Danish energy system with focus on the green transition and particularly how the role and function of the thermal power plant sector has changed over time.

On the second day of the visit the Danish Energy Industries Federation hosted a seminar with the participation of several Danish companies with expertise and capabilities within thermal power plant flexibility. The seminar was a unique opportunity for Danish companies to present themselves and engage in dialogue with the delegates from China. In the afternoon the Chinese delegation met with Thomas Egebo, who is Permanent Secretary of State at the Ministry of Energy, Utility and Climate. At the meeting Thomas Egebo and Zheng Shanjie followed up on the newly signed Memorandum of Understanding and discussed how Denmark and China can make the most of their joint cooperation on thermal power flexibility. The delegation ended their study tour with a site visit on the Avedøre power plant, which shines as a great example of production and fuel flexibility in Denmark.

Read more on the Sino-Danish Cooperation here.

Source: Danish Energy Agency